“The Netflix-Comcast paid-peering deal, while likely creating headwinds to margin leverage near-term, removes a major structural concern,” said Youssef Squali, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald. “No terms were disclosed, but we believe that this agreement is likely to precipitate others in the U.S. and internationally.”

Netflix is effectively bypassing the middleman with the hopes of ensuring smoother streaming of its movies and TV shows. Average speeds of Netflix’s prime-time streams to Comcast subscribers dropped 27% from October to January, according to the company’s data. The Comcast deal should help improve those speeds.

Shares jumped as much as 3% Monday to $445.26, a new intraday record high for the high-flying, momentum stock. The stock is already up 20% this year. Netflix shares traded in the low $50s as recently as September 2012. The stock rose 297% last year and has continued moving higher in 2014.

WSJ’s Shalini Ramachandran, who authored Monday’s Page One story on the deal, dropped by the MoneyBeat desk this morning with more analysis on this breaking development.